Pueblos

pwebloz, a group of North American Indian tribes, so-called from the nature of their homes. The word pueblo is Spanish, meaning village. As applied to the Indians, the name pueblos means, therefore, villagers. There are now twenty-eight villages of these Indians, with a total population of about 10,000. The villages of the Queres are along the Rio Grande and its tributaries in New Mexico. The Zuni villages are in the region of the Zuni Mountains in western New Mexico. The Moquis and others dwell on tributaries of the Colorado in northeastern Arizona. Still other half-Mexicanized villages are found in Texas and in the Mexican province of Chihuahua.

The Pueblos are a settled agricultural people. Each community lives in a single building called a pueblo. The pueblo is a curious structure. It is a large building, built usually of sandstone slabs, although adobe or sun-dried brick are also in use. The building usually surrounds one or more courts. The inner wall is terraced,-story by story. The outer wall may be several stories high and is unbroken save by small apertures which serve to let in light. Viewed from the court within, the building rises by successive steps, each a story in height. Originally, the first story was without doors or windows. Its inhabitants climbed to the roof by means of a ladder and descended through hatchways. The inhabitants of the second story entered through doorways from the flat roof of the first story, those of the third from the roof of the second story, etc. The inmates pulled their ladders up after them in time of danger. The entire edifice contains a great number of small rooms, giving rise to the expression, "many-celled." The Casas Grandas of Chihuahua are thought to have sheltered 4,000 people. All roofs slope a trifle to carry off occasional rain. They consist of well tamped adobe mud, laid on brush and pine or cottonwood beams. With continued usage the mud roof became almost as hard as a piece of pottery. The later pueblos, built by Indians who had learned to use longer beams, contain larger chambers.

Connected with each pueblo, sometimes forming a part of the main building and sometimes in the court apart from it, there is a circular, half-way underground apartment used by the male Indians as a council chamber and sleeping room. A fire is built in the center of it. The smoke escapes by a hole in the top. These apartments were so hot and smoky that the Spanish explorers called them ovens.

The Pueblos are an undersized people, rather well formed. The men are described as having a rich brown complexion; the women as lighter in color, varying from a light brown to olive. Albinos are not uncommon. The hair is of the black, glossy nature peculiar to Indians. The warrior wears his hair in three lengths. He cuts it squarely across his forehead and square again at each side of the face at about the height of the chin. The hair on the back of his head he allows to grow full length. The women cut their front hair at the level of the chin. Although nominally parted in the middle, it hangs unconfined like a curtain over the face and requires to be put aside constantly.

The original clothing of the Pueblos was made of the hides of animals. The modern Pueblos have substituted woolens for the skin garments worn by their ancestors, although in style they still adhere to the blanket, the poncho, and the moccasin. They are skillful in the manufacture of cotton and woolen blankets, sashes and waist bands, leggings, and the like. They are much given to necklaces and beads, ear-pendants, bracelets, and other ornaments. Among the Zunis there are still men who are excellent silversmiths. They are the most expert native potters in the United States. Their productions compare favorably with the pottery of the Aztecs. They are also skillful basket weavers. The ancient tribes were, no doubt, skillful hunters. At certain seasons of the year the buffalo was formerly abundant in the Rio Grande country. The mountains were full of deer, antelopes, elks, and bears. For religious reasons the Pueblos refuse to eat fish. The country in which they live is so arid that water is regarded as a sacred element. The fish which live in it are objects of veneration not to be eaten for food. Ever since they were first known the Pueblos have been agriculturalists. They conduct the waters of the streams by ditches to irrigate their little fields. When first known their principal crops were corn, squashes, beans, and onions. Wheat, watermelons, muskmelons, grapes, peaches, and other vegetables and fruits have been obtained from the white man and are now cultivated with success.

Our first historical knowledge of these Indians was obtained by the Spaniards. In 1539 they were visited by a Franciscan friar, who brought back a report of the "Seven Cities of Cibola." In the following year Coronado led an expedition into their country by way of Mexico. He had heard of the seven cities, but, what was more to his purpose, had heard that they lay in a land of gold. His expedition was unsuccessful from his point of view. It led, however, to the occupation of the country in the name of Spain, and to the Christianization of the Indians by missionary friars. He reported sixty-six villages and 20,000 warriors. The latter is regarded as an over estimate. In 1680, and again in 1696, the Pueblos revolted and drove the Spanish garrisons out of their country. They were, of course, reconquered and were required to abandon many of their old pueblos. They have also suffered considerably from the Apaches and Navajos.

There are hundreds of old pueblos scattered all over Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Only two of those now occupied are as old as the time of Coronado's expedition. The pueblos occupy a great variety of positions. Some are placed on slight eminences; others are built so as to inclose an entrant angle in a cliff; others, again, built on the top of mesas or small tablelands, have perpendicular sides. One of these, Acoma, by name, is situated sixty miles west of the Rio Grande on the top of a mesa 350 feet high. It is the oldest habitation within the limits of the United States. The only way of getting up to it is by means of steep and dangerous trails. It depends for water on a natural pool in the rocky surface of the mesa. The surface is about 165 acres in extent. The villagers depend for food on crops raised several miles away. There is a tradition that they at one time occupied a still higher elevation in the vicinity, called the "Enchanted Mesa." According to their accounts, it was ascended by a single trail. This was washed away during a terrible storm, leaving a number of their tribe on top unable either to descend or to obtain provisions from below. They, of course, perished. Scientists have found the ruins of a pueblo in the location indicated.

The Pueblos belong, without doubt, to the same stock as the Cliff Dwellers. There is a certain similarity between the two kinds of dwellings. In fact, the one shades off into the other.

See Cliff Dwellers; Navajo; Moqui; New Mexico